This invention relates to the manufacture of ice skates and blades therefor.
While the main example illustrated and described below shows a skate having a blade of the type designed for figure skating, i.e. with a serrated front surface for biting into the ice, the invention is also applicable to skates having blades without this feature, i.e. blades for hockey skates.
The present invention is concerned both with an improved method of manufacturing skate blades as well as with an improved manner of mounting such a blade in a superstructure of molded plastic material to form a skate. Throughout this specification the term "skate" is used to refer to this combination of blade and superstructure. The boot portion, to which the superstructure is in turn secured, is considered as a separate item and, for purposes of this specification, is not part of the "skate". The present invention is not concerned with the boot portion which is assumed to be conventional; accordingly such boot portion has not been shown in the specific examples illustrated in the drawings.
It is known to form a skate superstructure of molded plastic material and to provide such superstructure with a groove for receiving the upper edge of a blade, the blade being fixed in this groove by means of bolts that extend up into the superstructure where they are engaged and tightened by respective nuts. Such an arrangement is disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,909 issued Feb. 21, 1978 (Canadian application No. 258,944 filed Aug. 12, 1976).